Current Projects of Doctors Without Borders

By Daniel Lewis

Doctors Without Borders has a far-reaching impact and their current projects span the globe. In 2010, Doctors Without Borders was involved in 60 countries on six different continents. [1] Their projects were launched in response to a wide-range of issues including natural disasters, armed conflicts, disease outbreaks, and inadequate healthcare systems. [2] The focuses of these projects are diverse, ranging from health promotion to water sanitation. In total, Doctors Without Borders spent over one billion dollars in 2010. [1]

Figure 1: This map shows the countries (dark green) within which Doctors Without Borders worked based on figures from 2009. [3]

Of the 427 Doctors Without Borders projects in 2010, 260 of these projects were located in Africa. [1] There were also 102 projects in Asia, 59 projects in the Americas, and six projects in Europe. [1] The country within which Doctors Without Borders spent the most money in 2010 was Haiti. [1] Haiti also had the most staff for any country with 2,918 staff in 2010. [1] The most patients were treated in the Democratic Republic of Congo where 1,225,175 patients were treated in 2010. [1]

Doctors Without Borders responds to the medical needs presented by natural disasters, wars, epidemics, and lack of proper healthcare. [2] A major natural disaster that Doctors Without Borders responded to was the January 12th, 2010 earthquake in Haiti. They treated over 358,000 patients in Haiti in 2010. [1] Doctors Without Borders was also very involved after the flooding that occurred in Pakistan in 2010. During that year, they gave over 80,000 medical consultations, treated over 4,500 children for malnutrition, and distributed over 475,000 gallons of water every day in Pakistan. [1] In 2010, Doctors Without Borders was also very involved in treating victims in war zones and did this in countries such as Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, and Somalia. [1] The organization was also one of only two humanitarian organizations allowed to provide medical care during the conflicts in Libya in 2011. [4] Doctors Without Borders also treats many patients affected by epidemics. In 2010, there was a measles epidemic in Malawi and Doctors Without Borders was able to vaccinate 3.3 million children. [1] The disease was also widespread in countries such as Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Yemen, and Zimbabwe where over 500,000 children received immunizations from Doctor Without Borders in 2010. [1] Doctors Without Borders also works to treat victims of other forms of social injustice. For example, in 2010, the organization treated many illegal immigrants in Greece who had been locked away and not been given access to sufficient healthcare. [1] They also treated 71 Zimbabweans in South Africa who had been victims of sexual violence. [1]

Doctors Without Borders has a profound international influence, responding to the needs of those affected by natural disasters, wars, diseases, and social injustices. [2] Their projects are located throughout the world and address a broad scope of issues affecting health. [1]